After Chelsea lifted the FA Youth Cup for a third successive season, Under-18s manager Joe Edwards hailed it as the best win of all three.
Level at 1-1 with Manchester City from the first leg, goals from Dujon Sterling, Tammy Abraham and Fikayo Tomori put the Blues in control at Stamford Bridge, before Brahim Diaz’s late consolation.
Chelsea 3-1 Manchester City (4-2 on aggregate)
The FA Youth Cup Final
Second leg
7.45pm, Wednesday 27 April
Stamford Bridge, London
And Edwards said: “This is home for me. I’ve been here since I was eight years old and this one tonight is even more special for me, because I have been working with a large group of those players for a number of years.
“The first group I was in charge of as a coach was the under-eights, with the likes of Fikayo Tomori as part of that, and then Mason Mount and Nathan Baxter the year after, so this has been a nine- or 10-year journey to get to this stage.
“It’s been a privilege to watch them grow up as kids as well as footballers, and this is a piece of history for the club and a fitting way to move on from the under-18s.
“When you work at a club like this, you get used to being ambitious and demanding a lot of yourself and that’s the mentality we try to put in the players, so as coaches we have to live and breathe that ourselves.”
Those to have lifted the FA Youth Cup in recent years then graduate to the Chelsea first team include Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Isaiah Brown and Jake Clarke-Salter, who played against Aston Villa at Villa Park earlier this month.
And Edwards believes several of the current crop are capable of continuing their progress and eventually advancing.
He added: “The boys have to take the next step, keep up that hard work, and while they’ve already achieved, they have to keep working for that chance to get that first-team opportunity.
“Being sent out on loan is the best chance they have of that, and if they keep performing well then they’ll get that opportunity.”
